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When I first read about the new Xbox 360 having Achievement Points that awarded gamers for excellent play, I thought that it was a brilliant idea to create competition between gamers in both real and digital life. And though it took almost two years, Sony released trophies to compete with the Xbox Achievements, and for a while the two campaigns proved successful for both companies. What has been happening recently can only be called a perversion of the system that Microsoft first wanted to install into its home gaming franchise. Gamers are cheating to increase their gamer scores, avoiding great games all together because of their trophies, or lack thereof, and scheduling game ruining boosting sessions with their friends or strangers online.
Before I go any further I will admit that I have boosted trophies and achievement points before. I waill not make any excuses for it, but I do feel that this puts me in the best place to comment on how achievements are ruining gaming. I have personally sat in an 8 hour session of Gears of War where the two teams set up firing squads and took turns killing each other to get the kill based achievements. At the time we were all able to justify this improper gaming because this particular game asks that you to get over 100,000 kills in its multiplayer. Figuring an average of 10 kills per 20 minute round, the math claims it would have taken us over 3300 hours to hit that mark. It occurred to me at the end of this particular 8 hour session that this achievement, and for that matter all achievements, are pointless.
There was an episode of South Park a few months back where internet famous people received millions of theoretical dollars for their fame. This is not unlike your gamerscore or trophy level. Sure you can have a gamerscore of over 200,000 but what does that get you in real life? Do women clamor for you more or do men envy you? I would like to see a campaign from Microsoft where you can spend your points for sweepstakes or giveaways, similar to EA’s Pogo.com, so that all of your hard work will not be for naught. Until there is more than just pride on the line, I feel that achievement scores and trophy levels will remain pointless.
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I have heard the argument that trophies and achievements actually heighten games my making people play them in ways that they never would have otherwise. This might be true for a very small number of the population, but for those “Achievement Whores” out there, gaming has been reduced to a list of tasks to perform before getting rid of the game once its accolade meat has been ripped from its digital bones. I have to ask how that is fun? How is it fun to take ignore a great game like Metal Gear Solid 4 because it does not have trophies? How is it fun to quickly blow through all five required playthrus of a game to get the 1000 point score and never play it again? How is it fun to trade gamesaves so that you don’t even have to play the game in order to gain the achievements it has to offer? The answer is that it’s not.
Comments
I couldn't agree with you more. I'm late to the next gen party and when I pick up an older game i have friends who won't play it because they have all the trophy's or achievements. so I'm left having a less then stellar game performance because friends don't want to join in. I hope MS and Sony start thinking about taking trade for points or trophy's i would love to trade virtual fame for virtual goods. Heres hoping there reading
You make a good case, but this isn't new. When it wasn't trophies or achievements, it was an extra costume or an extra weapon. Really, gamers would jump into any challenge because that's the point of the game.
Those who merely borrow saves and don't bother with anything but the trophies are not gamers in my opinion, but hoarders. They're the kind of people who try to get as many friends as they can on facebook or myspace just for the sake of having them.
What developers need to realize is that making impossible trophies/achievements, like the 100,000 kills in multiplayer you mentioned, only hurt gamers since there's no reasonable way to obtain it without wasting a serious amount of effort in getting them. They should be more casual like one that I liked from Half-Life 2 ep2 where you have to bring a garden gnome with you through to the nearly the end of the game, kinda weird but cool. They should be things you can do while playing the game, things that you will enjoy doing, not w
Finishing that sentence that didn't go into my last comment:
"They should be things you can do while playing the game, things that you will enjoy doing, not work."
You say yourself that there's a lot of "achievement whores" out there right now, so what would happen if you could use your points to enter sweepstakes or something like that? Even more people would be playing Avatar instead of actual good games with harder achievements.
Well said. While I try to avoid achievement lists ahead of a game, instead preferring to find them by accident through actually playing the game, I still find it fun to get that assuring little bleep sound popping up every so often. That said, I agree (and somewhat recall they were going to do this) that Microsoft (and Sony) should be letting players use their points for something, other than bragging rights. I do applaud the fact MS is zeroing out the Gamerscores of cheaters as well.
"Sure you can have a gamerscore of over 200,000 but what does that get you in real life? Do women clamor for you more or do men envy you?"
Games have had high score tables almost as long as they've existed. Achievements and trophies are absolutely no different. I hope in the future you can find an interesting topic to write about.
I fail to see how an added feature like achievements does *anything* to ruin games... and after reading your article, I'm not sure you've got any argument against acheivements.
The mere existance of achievements doesn't make users do ridiculous things to get points, nor does any game in any way *require* the unlocking of any achievements... they're completely an optional, additional reward system.
For those that like to cheat, and those who choose to let the enjoyment of the game be replaced by a need to 'unlock' achievements, well, that's their problem - not the game's or the game designers... and I can also authoritively say, those people are in the minority - just like the author of this article.
The majority of people enjoy achievements for what they are; a simple little 'pat on the back' for a job well done.
How is it fun to read an article from somebody that has poor grammar and doesn't know how to proofread or use spellcheck?
ACHEIVEMENT UNLOCKE:DUNCE CAP 1G
You make some good points. And Sony made it so you can't get trophies for save swapping, or so I believe. But in the end, if trophies keep me playing the game longer than I would have originally, then I guess they did their job.
good article,i particuarly like the MGS4 bit,so many people would play it or replay it if there were trophies and in some ways i wish hideo kojima would release trophies.On the other hand i dont think he wants people to play just for trophies
I think this guy has a great point. You buy a game to play the campaign, multiplayer or whatever... Mainly to enjoy the game for what it is. People rent games, borrow them and then sell them simply for achievements or trophies. There is really no point. It's sad. Like someone said, it's fun when one pops up throughtout playing the game, but actually buying a game just for the achievements is ridiculous. You buy epic games to enjoy them, not buy crappy games to get the achievements. End of.
useless acheivments, sorry online gaming experiance xbox360 firmware boosters no gamerpoints are worthless/ and just spam like the ordinARY friendslist on xboxlive(its all guns) fricken ninjas silly sprites, i am happy killing myelf in games, while the news is dribble ive lost all hope, dud u see that noo boy
I got 1000 trophies then said now what ? maybe I should pat myself on the back - or give myself a hug , who knows ! Why did I care , who knows . Why the Hello kitty would I care about ranks - On your death bed its not like your going to say " Oh man trophies I love my pointless trophies "
I've played games most of my life as have many other people of course, and I've enjoyed the journey from Sonic the Hedgehog to Uncharted: Drake's Fortune and beyond. I played because I loved to, and because different games offered different things, from the high intensity escape of Abe in Oddworld, to the somewhat moving moments of Final Fantasy X. And I've played for hours at a time because, as I've said, I loved to play. Then came trophies, and somehow, horrifically, I seem to have been swept up in all the drama of collecting more and more in the hopes that these little pieces of digital rewards would appease a life long drought of real world achievements. Games haven't been the same since. All I want to do is earn trophies, even if that means doing things I dont want to do, playing what I dont want to play and even worse, never playing what I enjoyed the most simply because I've achieved the whole trophy list. I want my OLD gaming life back. Where I simply played for fun...
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